Twitter’s board has accepted Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $44bn offer to buy the social media giant. Dan Primack, Business Editor at Axios, says that those on both the right and the left who have reacted strongly to the prospect of a Musk-led takeover may be getting ahead of themselves. Stock markets around the world have been shaken by fears of further lockdown measures being implemented in China. We hear from residents of Beijing, who tell us they’re not overly concerned by the prospect of a strict lockdown being imposed, and describe the mood in the city. Plus, a joint investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the LA Times has revealed that consultants working for cigarette giant Reynolds American Tobacco bankrolled black activists, in an effort to lobby against the prohibition of menthol cigarettes, which are disproportionately popular among African Americans. In Ukraine, much attention has focused on the city of Mariupol in recent days, where hundreds of people are sheltering from a Russian bombardment in bunkers underneath the Azovstal steelworks. We speak to Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of the company which runs the steelworks, Metinvest. Plus, developing economies which rely heavily on tourism have been particularly affected by the global wave of Covid-19 lockdowns which paralysed foreign travel. With voyagers now venturing out again, our correspondent Peter Morgan was reminded of the economic value of optimism during a journey to Nepal.

Throughout the programme we're joined live by Peter Landers of the Wall Street Journal in Tokyo, and Forbes deputy editor Diane Brady in New York.

(Photo: Elon Musk’s $44bn offer was accepted by Twitter’s board; Credit: Getty Images)